All About Campaigns - Your Questions Answered

In this article, we’ll discuss where your campaigns are located, how to easily make backups of your campaigns, basic do’s and don’ts, and some basic troubleshooting should a problem arise.

Where Are My Campaigns?

Campaigns are located in their own folder in the Data directory that you assigned when installing and setting up Fantasy Grounds Unity.

The Data directory is where all created, downloaded and saved data is stored.

You can easily find your /campaigns folder by clicking on the file folder button in the upper-left corner of the Fantasy Grounds Unity main screen.

Open

Open

Campaign folder show above in Windows 11 File Explorer

Data Directory - Default File Path Locations

Windows 10/11

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\SmiteWorks\Fantasy Grounds\

macOS

/Users/[username]/SmiteWorks/Fantasy Grounds/

Linux

/home/[username]/.smiteworks/fgdata/

Note: .smiteworks is a hidden directory denoted by the . at the beginning of the folder name.

If I Delete Campaigns, Will “Check For Updates” Download And Restore Them?

No. Campaigns ONLY reside on your local hard drive and are not stored on SmiteWorks servers or in the Cloud. They will not be downloaded or restored by clicking Check For Updates from the main Fantasy Grounds window or by clicking Update from Settings / Updater.

We recommend periodically making backups of your campaign folder(s) from time to time to ensure you have a reliable backup should something happen (such as file corruption, a power loss while files are open, virus activity, etc.)

How Do I Make A Backup Of My Campaign?

The fastest and easiest way to make a backup of the campaigns folder is to simply copy the folder and paste it elsewhere. This will make an exact copy of the folder and all subfolders and files inside it. We recommend not creating the backup in the same Data folder as the original campaign folder in case something happens to the entire Data folder path.

We’ve also created a help article to assist in creating a ZIP file of your campaign(s) should you need to send them to the SmiteWorks Support Team. You can also use this guide to create ZIP files to be stored elsewhere outside of the Fantasy Grounds chosen Data directory.

Link: How to ZIP Your Campaign for Support / Developers

Can I Copy My Campaign Data From One Computer To Another If They Both Have FGU?

Yes. You can move campaign data from one computer running FGU to another running FGU and they should load up identically, no matter which machine you are on.

To be clear, any changes made in the campaign will only be saved to that campaign data on that specific machine and you will need to copy the updates back to the other machine manually.

The process is virtually identical to the How Do I Make A Backup Of My Campaign? process above, except you’ll paste the campaign data into the matching directory on the second machine.

Can I Copy Campaign Data From a Computer Running Windows to One Running macOS or Linux, and Vice-Versa?

Yes. Campaign files are generally XML and LUA files, and perhaps images if they were used in the campaign. These are universally loaded and interpreted in Fantasy Grounds Unity across all platforms.

Can I Set My Data Directory in Dropbox / Box / iCloud / Google Cloud / SkyDrive / NAS?

In short, no. We highly recommend not using remote file syncing and storing solutions as the default Data directory for your campaigns or any other Fantasy Grounds data. We have found that even the slightest internet hiccups, stalls, or disconnections can cause catastrophic and often unrecoverable file corruption in campaign files.

We recommend creating a backup of your campaigns (either manually or automated) to a second location, then syncing or moving the backup to the Cloud or NAS for offsite backup storage.

Can I Migrate A Campaign from Fantasy Grounds Classic to Fantasy Grounds Unity?

Yes! We have created a help article specifically about that process location here:
Link: Migrating a Campaign from FGC to FGU

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